November 10th marks another important date that should be widely known \u2013 especially in North Carolina \u2013 but received little attention. Last Saturday was the 120th anniversary of a pogrom against the Black community of Wilmington, NC, and the overthrow of the city\u2019s progressive government \u2013 the only successful coup in this country\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n These three events have some connections that are obvious and could be summarized with the sort of vague platitudes that the 1918 and 1938 anniversaries evoke: \u201cthe senselessness of violence and bloodshed\u201d and \u201cwe must reject hatred.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Yet, there are deeper patterns and histories that connect all three, which should instill in us a sense of profound moral urgency, rather than with the temptation to mumble a hollow sentiment or two.<\/span><\/p>\n “Wilmington Messenger.” Nov 9, 1898. Wikipedia Commons<\/p>\n The 1898 massacre and coup represented a violent backlash to progress, a recurring theme in race relations in this country. “At the end of the 19th century, Wilmington was a symbol of black hope. Thanks to its busy port, the black majority city was North Carolina’s largest and most important municipality…. Blacks owned 10 of the city’s 11 eating houses and 20 of its 22 barbershops. The black male literacy rate was higher than that of whites.” (from Timothy Tyson; more below)<\/span><\/p>\n These are also the moments when Confederate monuments are erected\u00a0as a warning and a powerful form of intimidation<\/a>. And the pogrom and coup of 1898 was not a matter of \u201cuneducated mobs running wild,\u201d but of a concerted, well-organized campaign by the racist power structure, led by such figures as future governor Charles Aycock and long-time US Senator Ben Tillman.<\/span><\/p>\n New York Herald.\u00a0<\/em>Nov 11, 1898<\/p><\/div>\n We advise our students to avoid a certain online encyclopedia, but it seems that Wikipedia’s entry for Wilmington’s “race riot”<\/a> has been heavily edited and improved by historians and experts, and (unless someone tampers with it!) it’s an excellent source. From the intro:<\/p>\n It is considered a turning point in post-Reconstruction\u00a0North Carolina\u00a0politics. The event initiated an era of more severe\u00a0racial segregation<\/a>\u00a0and effective\u00a0disenfranchisement<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0African Americans<\/a>\u00a0throughout the\u00a0South<\/a>, a shift already underway since passage by\u00a0Mississippi<\/a>of a\u00a0new constitution<\/a>\u00a0in 1890, raising barriers to voter registration. Laura Edwards wrote in\u00a0Democracy Betrayed<\/i>\u00a0(2000): “What happened in Wilmington became an affirmation of\u00a0white supremacy<\/a>\u00a0not just in that one city, but in the South and in the nation as a whole”, as it affirmed that invoking “whiteness” eclipsed the\u00a0legal citizenship, individual rights, and equal protection under the law of blacks.<\/span><\/p>\n It was originally described by\u00a0white Americans\u00a0as a\u00a0race riot\u00a0caused by blacks. However, over time, with more facts publicized, the event has come to be classified as a\u00a0coup d’\u00e9tat<\/i>\u00a0(violent overthrow of a government), with complex causes that were social, political, and economic.\u00a0It is the only successful\u00a0coup d’\u00e9tat<\/i>\u00a0on record in the U.S.<\/span><\/p>\n The\u00a0coup<\/i>\u00a0occurred after the state’s white\u00a0Democratic Party\u00a0conspired and led a mob of 2,000 white men to overthrow the legitimately-elected local\u00a0Fusionist\u00a0government. They expelled opposition black and white political leaders from the city, destroyed the property and businesses of black citizens built up since the\u00a0Civil War, including the only black newspaper in the city, and killed an estimated 60 to more than 300 people.<\/span><\/p>\n Men gather outside the charred remains of The Daily Record<\/em> after the 1898 massacre. The newspaper was launched by Alex and Frank Manly a few years earlier, and was the only African-American newspaper in the state, and perhaps the only Black paper published daily in the entire country. Seven issues of the paper are available here<\/a>. Newspapers such as the Daily Record<\/em> served a vital function in the Black communities<\/a> and therefore were often the targets of racist violence.<\/p><\/div>\n Timothy Tyson is one of our best historians of race & racism. Blood Done Sign My Name<\/span><\/em><\/a> and Radio Free Dixie,<\/span><\/em> about Robert F. Williams of Monroe, NC, are essential, classic works. And he’s not exactly resting on his laurels: Last year’s book on Emmett Till<\/a> (and Mamie Till’s fight for justice) is another pathbreaking work.<\/span><\/p>\n Tyson has also done much to recover and contextualize the story of the Wilmington coup. From a lengthy\u00a02006 article<\/a> he wrote for the News & Observer<\/span><\/em> of Raleigh:<\/span><\/p>\n On Nov. 10, 1898, heavily armed columns of white men marched into the black neighborhoods of Wilmington. In the name of white supremacy, this well-ordered mob burned the offices of the local black newspaper, murdered perhaps dozens of black residents \u2014 the precise number isn\u2019t known \u2014 and banished many successful black citizens and their so-called \u201cwhite nigger\u201d allies. A new social order was born in the blood and the flames, rooted in what The News and Observer\u2019s publisher, Josephus Daniels, heralded as \u201cpermanent good government by the party of the White Man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Wilmington race riot of 1898 stands as one of the most important chapters in North Carolina\u2019s history. It is also an event of national historical significance. Occurring only two years after the Supreme Court had sanctioned \u201cseparate but equal\u201d segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, the riot marked the embrace of virulent Jim Crow racism, not merely in Wilmington, but across the United States\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n At the end of the 19th century, Wilmington was a symbol of black hope. Thanks to its busy port, the black majority city was North Carolina\u2019s largest and most important municipality. Blacks owned 10 of the city\u2019s 11 eating houses and 20 of its 22 barbershops. The black male literacy rate was higher than that of whites.<\/span><\/p>\n Black achievement, however, was always fragile. Wealthy whites were willing to accept some black advancement, so long as they held the reins of power. \u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n North Carolina became a hotbed of agrarian revolt as hard-pressed farmers soured on the Democrats because of policies that cottoned to banks and railroads. Many white dissidents eventually founded the People\u2019s Party, also known as the Populists. Soon they imagined what had been unimaginable: an alliance with blacks, who shared their economic grievances.<\/span><\/p>\n As the economic depression deepened, these white Populists joined forces with black Republicans, forming an interracial \u201cFusion\u201d coalition that championed local self-government, free public education and electoral reforms that would give black men the same voting rights as whites. In the 1894 and 1896 elections, the Fusion movement won every statewide office, swept the legislature and elected its most prominent white leader, Daniel Russell, to the governorship.<\/span><\/p>\n In Wilmington, the Fusion triumph lifted black and white Republicans and white Populists to power. Horrified white Democrats vowed to regain control of the government\u2026..<\/span><\/p>\n White-supremacist terrorism 120 years later<\/span><\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n A blog post<\/span><\/a>\u00a0I wrote two weeks ago, after the massacre at the synagogue in Pittsburgh. The perpetrator was driven not simply by \u201chatred\u201d but by racialized antisemitism and xenophobia.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/john-cox\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/512\/2018\/11\/Attention_White_Men.jpg\")
<\/a><\/pre>\n<\/a><\/a>More on Wilmington 1898:<\/h4>\n
Tyson, Timothy B. (November 17, 2006).\u00a0“The Ghosts of 1898. Wilmington’s Race Riot and the Rise of White Supremacy”<\/a><\/h4>\n
http:\/\/media2.newsobserver.com\/content\/media\/2010\/5\/3\/ghostsof1898.pdf<\/h4>\n
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1999 book:\u00a0Democracy Betrayed:\u00a0<\/a>The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy<\/h4>\n
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The Lost History of an American Coup D\u2019\u00c9tat: f<\/a>rom The Atlantic<\/em>, 2017<\/span><\/h4>\n